Do parents have the right to read their kid's text messages (whether or not they pay the phone bill) or is it considered invading their privacy?

Wow you ask a crap load of questions. Yes they do!
Fact is at least until your 13 your not even legally allowed on Facebook for example and before your 18 you aren't allowed without parental consent. If your living at home your parent can snoop all they want, it might not win bonus points with the kid but it is your right.

Cell phones? If the parent bought the phone yes! If the kid did then maybe not its really up to the parent to decide.

Email another hot topic but legally until your eighteen you need parental consent to have email! Even with parental consent if your under 13 Hotmail policy at least says you cannot legally have an email account.

Children put themselves at risk all the time, their are pedophiles and other criminal elements all over taking advantage of idiot children and youth.

If the child is involved in criminal activity or a possible victim a parent has an obligation to check it out! Game consoles have parental controls as well.

Look when a kid shoots someone at 2AM and the parent just let the kid go out and knew the whole time the child was involved in gang activity. That parent is responsible for not informing the authorities and stopping their child.

Until your child is of legal age they are your responsibility. It is your duty to ensure your child is not in danger or a menace to society!

Take Columbine for example. The parents of the bullies who provoked the attack who drove the kids to murder and then kill themselves. The bullies parents were all aware of what was going on, in interviews parents said that they knew.

So the parents let it happen, who is to blame? The kids but their parents didn't do anything to stop them!

Parents need to take responsibility for their off spring!

I do it.

yes

Absolutely, if you are living in their home, they have a right to do whatever they feel is necessary. The only privacy a child "deserves" is in the bathroom. If you haven't got anything to hide, why does it matter?

parents have a right to do any legal thing they want in their house,,,,


there is very little assumption of privacy that is a RIGHT, although a certain respect of space can be earned,,,,

Yes. Children are inexperienced at life. We are responsible for their protection and if they refuse our guidance and care with cellphones and the internet they need to be taken away from them until they learn to be responsible.

If you have a daughter be wary of the one where they put older boys names under a female friends name. That trick fooled me for awhile.

I have 6 children, 2 of them grown, and have never needed to check their texts or messages.
However, there passwords are all the same as mine and we all can get into each others accounts, they use my phone I use theirs if I cant find mine.
it doesnt seem like there is much for them to hide, they normally tell me way more than I want to know.

Im old school, parents have the 'right' to do whatever is necessary ro make sure their kids are safe when it comes to ANYTHING that the parent is paying for

its all about circumstance and intent, if a parent has reason to believe something is going on that may be revealed in a text,,,,they have the right to look into it


although I would not bother a phone that the child purchased,,,

Agree with the lady above, except for the last statement.
If living in my house, in a situation where I can be held responsible for THEIR actions. I will do whatever I deem necc. for the saftey of the house & them. Everyone living in our home KNEW the house rules & the fact that if they didn't like them, they would respect them, while residing under that roof. We had friends & foreign exchange students, live with us. All agreed we were NEVER harsh & more than fair. When son & his family visit, even grandchildren understand, "Grandpa's house, Grandpa's rules"
Their dad has different rules but same basis & I respect his house, as HE respected mine.

Gwen always said, "Biggest job of a parent, is to teach RESPECT of OTHERS & make children socially acceptable in LIFE." Son & stepdaughter are products of that idea. I am PROUD of BOTH of them
& know that Gwen is also.

You are such a cool man oldsage.

Not "cool". Just learned to many of life's lessons the hard way. Gwen was the BEST thing to happen me & my son. She educated us both & I feel still watching over his military career & her daughter's govt. career. Just wished she could have lived to see grandchildren. How she loved kids.

I am sure she is.

It begs the question of..."do parents trust their children to be giving them the responsibility of a mobile phone in the first place"?

Simple really....if they don't trust them with the responsibility of a mobile phone, then why bother going through the drama of having them own one?

SAFTEY

I think part of the whole concept hinges on is it really their phone or your phone that you let them use as long as you see them useing it for the purpose it is intended. And how much of it comes back to rest on you if they mess up useing it the wrong way. The abuse of cell phones are starting to have some REALLY severe penalties and parents need to think just how far they are sticking their neck out giving a kid a phone. It is not all good and just a toy for sure.

Example; I provided my sons many tools to do different things they needed to learn to do and enjoyed doing. They had power tools, used sporting equipment, camping gears, even had shot guns, and cars while they were in their teens but they had rigorous training and on going supervision. Whatever they wanted to use they had to pay the real expenses includeing the insurance and so forth that went with it. Had cell phones been more affordable I would have provided them as I did walkie talkies and pagers. They were on the Ham radio, CB (did classes for licenses, a lot of Emergency React calls and monitoring so the dangers kind of explained themselves rather than Mom always having to sound like the warden , and on line from early ages also. Yes I had to contend with "threats" and the occassional failures. I think if your carrier will not allow you to put blocks or monitoring programs on your cell phone you need to rethink how young is safe for a kid to evenhave a phone. I would certainly make it a rule that phones are charged in a public area of the home and that they know Mom and dad have access to see or read anything that goes across it. Kids are kids you would not let them play Russian Roulett . Being progressive does not mean being stupid permissive. Maybe it is over stateing it some but if your kid needs a phone to be safe somewhere they don't need to be there alone.

My thing was earning the privilege first then "catching" them being good and rewarding responsible behavior. they were more than glad to show me their passwords, bills, and so forth because it earned them nore privileges when they did well. Also pointing out when they did make some of the "expected" mistakes and how to handle it the next time or make restitution rather than just punishing them really helped. Experience is a great teacher so sometimes you have to give kids a little rope to learn. Hopefully not enough to hang themselves but maybe enough to get jerked up short a few times if that makes sense.

Nothing will make a kid treasure a phone more than Earning the money to pay for it and having to sweat out in hard labor a tax for useing mine, or a fine for miss use. My sons were not angels and believe me they remember having to go "face the music" for a couple of their escapades. I remember one quakeing in his boots having to go tell a teenage girlfriends father that he was caught calling after hours and apologize for breaking their house rules as well as mine. It hurt him a lot more that she was grounded than him being grounded but we became life long family friends by being honest with her parents. Parents have to have each other's back. Another having to mow lawns in the worst summer heat in decades to pay for toll calls that showed up on an audit of the bill which was a monthly chore we did together.

It can be hard sometimes anticipateing the problems that can go with each new tool you give your child but a cell phone, especially with the unbridal access it gives your child to the world (and more importantly the world to them) I think the very closest monitoring possible is justified. More and more cell phone programs, schools, and children's centers like Boy's & Girls Club/Scouting/ and public recreations centers have teen training and I would consider taking them essential preparation.

It takes some time to really learn yourself but really explaining/showing the risks to your kid in advance will make them a lot more careful. It is older technology but I remenber taking my kids to see some of the not so nice people who had access to CB's and how they could be tracked down with one and ripped off and it made them a lot more careful what they said on them. Good Luck

wow, what a bunch of nosey people.

lol,,

active parenting requires a bit of nosiness....

sounds like you all have trust issues with your children.